TheMinim wrote:With the newpix, now have read to the end of page 20. Blimey, this is going to take a while.

Yes I think the problem is it takes about an hour to skim read a days worth of posts and probably 2-3 to read them properly. And their is a bit where the post rate was so high it would take half a day to read just one day properly. And with a thread that has gone on for so many weeks now it's going to be quite hard to read the whole thing properly. If you have 10 hours a day to dedicate to it maybe...

dgbrt wrote:But 50 digits is also the maximum.When I do need more I will do more investigations.

I often use Frink for arbitrary length numbers. It amuses me, and works on almost anything. Just to throw it out there.

I read this post twice. Only the second time did I read dgbrt's part. So, initial reaction:Q "how many eggs do you want?"vvn "frink"Q "what's the speed of electricity in meters per longpix?"vvn "frink"

Well, yes, it seems to work perfectly.

And another thing, to those who complain about off-topic posts: answer me this, if you can get your heads out of your arses - after the first Frame, would a discussion of sandcastles have been off-topic? And now? What exactly would be off-topic? Oh dear, you're not having much success reading the future are you?

Thank you again, BlitzGirl! I've been trying to remember that cotton-pickin' song on and off for the last several days, since before the Fading began - maybe since Megan mentioned bags. I even mentioned this very Muppet skit to my daughters to see if they could remember it.

Is there a word for being ninja'd in a good way, like this? Where you didn't post because you couldn't remember, and then someone beats you to it and happily refreshes your memory? Saveninja? Happyninja? Blitzninja?──────────Something I don't believe anyone has suggested so far: Maybe they're so clueless about how the world works because they're in a virtual environment, some sort of MMORPG♥ where 2D sandcastles make sense and you can violate the laws of physics and fluid dynamics within limits - but where they're having to learn the rules as they go along (like Minecraft before the zombies hit). Admittedly, it would have to be a pretty immersive system to allow a player to taste the sea.

tman2nd wrote:(Insert something clever here)ONG <snip>EDIT: I can't seem to get the correct image. When I refresh I get either last newpix or the current newpix, but when I copy the correct one I get http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time.pngEDIT: It's working now.

Oh for Randall's sake. Just do the Dong competition and let the bot do the picture.EDIT: warning to Blitzers - the above link goes to the latest picture. You don't want to click it.

Last edited by Exodies on Fri May 03, 2013 3:15 pm UTC, edited 1 time in total.

TheMinim wrote:With the newpix, now have read to the end of page 20. Blimey, this is going to take a while.

Yes I think the problem is it takes about an hour to skim read a days worth of posts and probably 2-3 to read them properly. And their is a bit where the post rate was so high it would take half a day to read just one day properly. And with a thread that has gone on for so many weeks now it's going to be quite hard to read the whole thing properly. If you have 10 hours a day to dedicate to it maybe...

You can do it! I believe in you!

Jonas79 wrote:

Wee Red Bird wrote:

KarMann wrote:SPOKONG!

Spoiler:

Not this way? So she has travelled far away some other way.

Though I am reminded of the old joke where two nuns rode bikes down a cobbled street.One nun said to the other "I've not come this way before"The other replied "That will be the cobbled street"

Good joke And also interesting thought. Maybe she has travelled further by other means of transportation than walking?

edit: I'd like to know who the other 42 guests are who seem to be catching up with this comic at the same time I do. Anyone else in Australia? I looked at the distribution graphs (they were mentioned sometime around the 350th post) but we didn't rate a mention.

I didn't expect that when I looked again this evening we would be up to 400-odd pages... Earlier on I tried keeping pace with Blitzgirl (I was catching up on time before it was cool!) but kept getting swamped by new entries while I was sleeping and didn't have the waking hours to catch up. I must congratulate Minim for their efforts, hope they're still with us!

It would be great if someone was doing a run-down of the fibres of this thread, I remember reading one earlier about a previous comic that explained how the post had gotten so big and confusing and why it had been cut in half by the moderators... Probably this has been discussed but I haven't read the last hundred or so posts and I can't remember how to find it. It was the thread where people started challenging quantum physics (who was it who once said that the people you be sure know nothing about quantum physics are those who say they understand quantum physics?). Kind of like watching the movie rather than reading the book I guess. I feel I am cheating with the comic even, by watching Aubronwood's movie version. But we all know books are better if you're going on a long trip.

Anyway, on that note, I hope Megan and Cueball (Cuegan now, right?) have towels in those bags. Necessary for all important trips through time and space.

jjjdavidson wrote:Something I don't believe anyone has suggested so far: Maybe they're so clueless about how the world works because they're in a virtual environment, some sort of MMORPG♥ where 2D sandcastles make sense and you can violate the laws of physics and fluid dynamics within limits - but where they're having to learn the rules as they go along (like Minecraft before the zombies hit). Admittedly, it would have to be a pretty immersive system to allow a player to taste the sea.

jjjdavidson wrote:Something I don't believe anyone has suggested so far: Maybe they're so clueless about how the world works because they're in a virtual environment, some sort of MMORPG♥ where 2D sandcastles make sense and you can violate the laws of physics and fluid dynamics within limits - but where they're having to learn the rules as they go along (like Minecraft before the zombies hit). Admittedly, it would have to be a pretty immersive system to allow a player to taste the sea.

♥. Meagerly Multiplayer Online Roll-Playing Game

Reminds me of the Otherland books.

Something else I haven't read, along with Game of Thrones and I don't remember what all else. (But I've used Michael Whelan's "Golden Shadows" cover painting as desktop wallpaper on and off for years.)

TheMinim wrote:With the newpix, now have read to the end of page 20. Blimey, this is going to take a while.

Yes I think the problem is it takes about an hour to skim read a days worth of posts and probably 2-3 to read them properly. And their is a bit where the post rate was so high it would take half a day to read just one day properly. And with a thread that has gone on for so many weeks now it's going to be quite hard to read the whole thing properly. If you have 10 hours a day to dedicate to it maybe...

You can do it! I believe in you!

Thanks!

I'm skimming through the old posts and checking up the present every hour-ish. Got to the top of Page 38. I also followed this thread for a bit before which assists with bits of skimming. But that does leave lots and lots of pages and I've only got 25 minutes-ish before I have to access the real world and go to my only class/lesson of the day. I can still find bits of time though.

May Time ever continue. *bows and retreats*

Titled TheMinimastic as of NP 1610.Hi Blitzers! And non-blitzers!Official owner of NewPage 1572, and official co-owner of NewPage 2087 along with NoMouse.

udscbt wrote:I missed a lot of posts (again) and I was wondering: what happened in the last 12 pages?Has the Cannon Law been written by the Ecumenic Council? Do we have a new temporary Pope/Mome?A lot of speech has been shown lately, any crazy theory about what's happening?

Limits of their language are the limits of their world? Wittgens time...

BlitzGirl, I've wanted to congratulate you, but it's taken me all day to catch up on the last days' posts. Well done! And with style to boot!

And this is quite cool:

spamjam wrote:

Latent22 wrote:Don't need to go to a restaurant, you can have your own grill!Barbecue Blitzgril

I was too late for your party, but maybe I can make you a nice steak on Spamjam's grill sometime?

A random needle-pulled question: there's the cool map for user's locations. Is there an easy way to poll our ages? It seems like we have quite a range here. I'm always amused at my assumptions when someone who posts like a patriarch reveals himself to be a student, or when a poster of youthful exuberance cites an ancient cultural reference. We seem to be a very mixed bunch, and also with a high stereotype-defying factor enhancing that mixedness.

Age? Well, it's all relative...

Compared to some redwoods, I'm but a babe, still wet behind the ears;compared to some fruit-flies, I've lived for over a 1,000 lifetimes.

But if you want more detail, I was born on the same day that Explorer 8 was launched. But I think it's just a coincidence...

Former Forever member of the OTT, now moved on to other things sucked back in by the wowterful wonder of the thread...

Wow - we are on there! Not sure which map I was looking at earlier, it may have been an overall... It kinda feels like looking at an Olympics medal tally, what with the UK ahead of us and all, the only problem being, of course, that China are not there kicking our arses.... ? Although perhaps that is where XonqNopp is from? This is relevant to the comic, methinks, because perhaps they will be walking through one of our countries. If they are walking through Africa I don't think we will manage to sight them. And now I'm starting to panic that we are moving through space and time and we will soon be losing our minds!! I'm Panicking!! Will it ever stop??!!

ggh wrote:A random needle-pulled question: there's the cool map for user's locations. Is there an easy way to poll our ages? It seems like we have quite a range here. I'm always amused at my assumptions when someone who posts like a patriarch reveals himself to be a student, or when a poster of youthful exuberance cites an ancient cultural reference. We seem to be a very mixed bunch, and also with a high stereotype-defying factor enhancing that mixedness.

Perfect! Cheers! And thank you tman2nd, Eliram, CatHectic, cellocgw, StratPlayer and SBN for your data (I didn't know if you already put yourselves on this poll, so I didn't try to add you.) Looking at these poll results we do seem to be all over the show. I wonder if any trends will emerge as more folks vote. I wouldn't be surprised either way. The thing I am pretty convinced of now is that age means very little to how folks come across on the OTT - in Time we seem to be timeless.

Also taking the opportunity to bump RobIrr's map again:

Edit: added names to my thanks, alsoNinja'd on the map bump, but I'll leave it for convenience in case anyone wants to bump the map and age poll at the same time.

ggh wrote:A random needle-pulled question: there's the cool map for user's locations. Is there an easy way to poll our ages? It seems like we have quite a range here. I'm always amused at my assumptions when someone who posts like a patriarch reveals himself to be a student, or when a poster of youthful exuberance cites an ancient cultural reference. We seem to be a very mixed bunch, and also with a high stereotype-defying factor enhancing that mixedness.

edit: Anyone else notice how cute it is that, once the Blitzrandir Singularity occurred, the OTT sped up so quickly that it put several 'regulars' far in the past post-coma so they had to Blitz the thread of Time to catch up to her? It makes me smile every morningoutside to see the in people's posts about how many newpages they've missed.

From the sigs, and a note from Valarya...It appears that I missed the singularity, the triumphant arrival of BlitzGirl. Lamenting that Outside had me on a rock and roll road trip over the weekend and I missed the party, I even had a tux (somewhere in the back of the closet, still in the dry-cleaner's plastic cover).

A Lot appears to have happened recently, a major turn in the pace of the OTC, so I must follow diligently all intervening posts.

As a devoted Disciple of OTC and a follower of BlitzGirl's one true path, I must therefore broadcast to the future my endeavors in the past as I struggle onward to the present and eventually the future, skipping nothing, reading and pondering all.

Activity currently in the past in the Thread.

Requests for Hats are awash, and from the looks of the avatars it seems that Arch Cardinal Buffy was quite busy and did deliver many of them. Looking Fabulous folks! Shame on thoes of you who insulted and offended the Haberdasher of time.

The "...ONG"s are showing that M&C have not returned to the sand castle and the seawall is starting to crumble, and speculation abounds that this will erode to nothing and herald THE END.

i was upset at the thought that a fade would mean the end of the story.i am relieved that this is just a beginning.also, 462 pages. damn.tl; dr;did randall plan all this in advance, or is he making it up in real time?

MeganYou don't have to put up the sand dykeThose days are overYou don't have to protect the castle; you can go and take a hike

MeganYou don't have to build the scaffold no moreor top the towers with flagsYou can stop worrying about the shore

MeganYou don't have to put up the sand dykeMeganYou don't have to put up the sand dyke

Megan (put up the sand dyke)Megan (put up the sand dyke)Megan (put up the sand dyke)Megan (put up the sand dyke)Megan (put up the sand dyke)Whoa...

You can walk away to something newYou and the clumsy stick-man, CueTime doesn't have to be realBut you can still find a lot of joy

Who knows where you will end up?But things are starting to look up.See it once, maybe see it again,It's a grand way...

Megan...

(EDITED well after the fact because I used "sand levee" and missed the obvious "sand dyke," which works so much better in terms of a closer rhyme to the original song and matches the discussions from Newpages past...)

Last edited by StratPlayer on Wed May 01, 2013 1:25 am UTC, edited 1 time in total.

Former Forever member of the OTT, now moved on to other things sucked back in by the wowterful wonder of the thread...

I told you guys I would be back... And with me, I bring a newly stitched image... Including the frame that updated just a couple of minutes ago. I notice that the terrain does not exactly line up between each frame, so I do not know if they are a contiguous section of land, or if they are just snapshots of the current position, but do not necessarily attach.

Megan and Cueball are looking down, shortly after Megan finished rebuilding the tower she knocked down, which is now skinnier.Someone predicted raptors. I predict the Sea1 will continue to rise.1-Which is big.

Yay! something directed to me, from Blitzgirl's past, which was the distant past, and is my present. (A gift? For me?? Awwww, shucks! You shouldn't have...)

It is, and it's not. I think the problem comes with worrying about it and taking actions to dissuade it. That then itself becomes noise and may actually discourage some people from making signal. Looks to me like, with OTT self-analysis, when people are allowed to ebb and flow (like the sea, yes yes) we get on track, but with a sort of Katamari Damacy style, picking up the many small "off-topics" and magically making it part of the larger "on-topic". I think this style of threading mimics real life a bit better than the segmented 1-thread 1-topic style. People have conversations that don't seem relevant which evolve into new topics which evolve into inside jokes or personal connections which then make the real topic (connections between human beings) much better and worthwhile./minor-rant

******Gotta coma, so maybe I'll continue this rant later (if the point hasn't been made well enough).

You will note, azule, that I did not specify what I considered to be the optimum signal-to-noise ratio.

Lost Greatest Silent Baby X Y Z. "There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..."

It would be good to remember the words of the Pope of the Holy Contradiction, when it was spake

"...thus also without sound there is no silence"

and also to revisit the Gospel according to BlitzGirl, where it is written (for all Time and all of time)

"Yet these divisions do not separate us, but make us more powerful. As grains of Sand(semencancercoffeebabies) in a Sandcastle, this needle-pulled thing works best when we are not all of the same shape. Our quirks clasp us together all the more strongly, so that when we Wait for it together - whatever Time we may travel, whatever sect we may splinter, whatever graph or song or hat we share - we are not alone. For though Time may scatter us among the pastposts and the Present, in the end, it is also what brought us to this mad, mad, glorious home in the first place."

There is a time for every purpose under heaven... a time to speak, and a time to remain silent. Those times (and their reasons) are different for each of us... and as it was pointed out by our own BlitzGirl the First, they must be different for each of us, for it is that that makes us strong, mad, and glorious.

Jose

Order of the Sillies, Honoris Causam - bestowed by charlie_grumbles on NP 859 * OTTscar winner: Wordsmith - bestowed by yappobiscuts and the OTT on NP 1832 * Ecclesiastical Calendar of the Order of the Holy Contradiction * Please help addams if you can. She needs all of us.